


Getting To Know You

by CorvusCorvidae



Series: Quinntana Week [3]
Category: Glee
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Bodyswap, F/F, Quinntana Week
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-03-28
Updated: 2014-07-20
Packaged: 2017-12-06 17:35:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 22,092
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/738296
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CorvusCorvidae/pseuds/CorvusCorvidae
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Santana would have called them close friends, but when she wakes up in Quinn’s body, maybe she really doesn’t know the other girl at all. AU. Quinntana Week Day Three: Body Swap.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> This will be continued once Quinntana week ends. I couldn’t justify cramming everything into a one-shot so it’ll be a short story instead.

*0*0*

Rolling over, with your head aching and your body sore, you let out an exasperated sigh as you attempted to get comfy again. It was probably the ass crack of dawn and yet there you were being woken up. It was a loud thumping, like some asshole was running around, that had pulled you from your slumber, and you knew you were going to have to talk with Kurt and Rachel again about being considerate roommates. Why didn’t those two ever learn?

You had learnt not to bring home questionable girls from the bars you visited. You had learnt not to start cooking at four in the morning. You had learnt not to raid through their belongings every month. You had become a considerate roommate, now it was their turn. 

Grumbling under your breath, it was then that you realised, with the sound of a little chuckle that followed and the bed moving next to you, that hello, you were not alone. Cracking one eye open, you saw the lithe body of someone next to you, and then felt their hands make your body’s acquaintance.

Okay, so this was a pleasant surprise.

You were sure that last night had been nothing more than a few glasses of cheap wine and then going to bed alone. But hey, here was a girl whose hands were teasing at the band of your underwear, and clearly you must have fucked her last night if that hickey on her collarbone was anything to go by. So why question it now?

Nuzzling into her neck, and placing soft kisses on the skin there to slowly warm her up, you allowed your hands to seek out her waist. Her tank top had ridden up, and your fingers wasted no time in embracing the sun kissed skin revealed.

“Quinn,” the girl moaned in response, and maybe now was time to question it.

What did she just say?

“What did you call me?” you murmured, pulling back to get a good look at her, your voice heavy with sleep. Her black hair was tousled around her head, and she was squinting at you in the morning light, a frown marring her face.

“Quinn?” she repeated with her voice rising at the end, and now it was your turn to frown.

“Why, why would you call me Quinn?” you asked, and she began to sit up. What a good idea, and you followed suit, leaning back against the wall next to you and realising that this was not your room.

You didn’t have fucking bedroom walls. So where the hell were you?

There were two single beds, both pushed against opposite walls, and minimal furniture, but it was definitely a dorm room. A surprisingly familiar dorm room, now that you had time to look at it.

Those sun dresses and cardigans on the pile of clothes next to the desk looked very familiar, and the posters on the opposite wall were ones you’d definitely stared at before. Though, usually Quinn’s head was in front of them and it was via Skype.

Why the fuck were you in New Haven, and where was Quinn? What the fuck was going on?

You knew for a fact that you didn’t get the train up to hers last night. You were tipsy from the wine and had spent time with Rachel and Kurt. Nowhere in that did the idea to see her pop up. So what…how…why?! Why were you in Quinn’s dorm room, in her bed, with a half-naked girl calling you her name?!

“I think you should leave,” you said, shaking your head as you pushed back the covers to begin to get out the bed. Only, those were not your hands, and those certainly weren’t your legs you’d just revealed.

“Yeah, I think that would be best,” the girl muttered, not giving you another glance. “They did warn me that it would be a one-night thing, but I thought maybe you’d treat me with a little bit more respect,” she yammered, and you gave her a bewildered look because what the fuck was she talking about?

You were white for fuck’s sake? How could her bruised ego compete with that?! Your entire skin complexion had changed, and she was moaning about only being a one-night stand?

As she gathered up her clothes and threw them back on, you watched her carefully, containing your freak out right until the door of the room closed behind her. Only then did you spring out of bed, skid across the floor, ignoring the fact that you only had on underwear, and come to a stop in front of the mirror.

This had to be a fucking joke.

That was Quinn. You were staring at Quinn.

Raising your hand, you waved at the mirror, and so did Quinn. Had you…had you lost your mind? Was this some kind of serious mind fuck? What…what was even going on?

If you were…if you were Quinn, then who the fuck was you?

Cautiously turning back round, you spied the room again and felt your stomach twist in knots. This was so messed up. It had to be a dream. It absolutely had to be a dream. This couldn’t actually be happening. There was just no way.

Pinching yourself, just to check, you winced in pain and shook your head. Not a dream, but still a serious fucking horrific situation you had found yourself in. You needed answers, and you needed them as soon as possible.

Searching through Quinn’s crap, and throwing on a t-shirt while you did so, you eventually found her phone. Of course, that didn’t mean you could get into the damn thing because you had no clue what her password was.

Well, this was going fucking great!

Heading to the door, you opened it up and peeked out into the hallway. You hadn’t had time to visit Quinn yet, so you didn’t know the layout of her dorm rooms, or where anything was. You really didn’t have a clue, and that was most likely evident on your face…Quinn’s face…whatever.

“Hey, Q,” a voice called, and you looked in that direction. Across the hall, the dorm room door was open and a girl staring right back at you. Thankfully, you didn’t have to say anything, because she just kept on talking.  “I saw Melody making her way out here pretty fast. You couldn’t have at least taken the girl for breakfast like usual?” she asked and you narrowed your eyes.

Was Quinn friends with this girl? And were girls in Quinn’s bed a regular thing? You’d need to find that out later. Right now, you needed to call yourself, which made a hell of a lot more sense in your head.

“Can I use your phone?” you asked, cutting right to the chase. Sod pleasantries.

The girl raised her eyebrows in surprise at your question and nodded.

“Eh…sure.” She disappeared out of sight for a second and then came out into the hall. You were still hanging out your door, and given the fact you hadn’t put on more clothes, you really didn’t want to step out completely. “Will you help me get alcohol next weekend? I know it’s a big ask, but Jake’s coming to visit,” she asked, rattling on, holding the phone just out your reach.

“Why not,” you replied, shrugging your shoulders. By then, you hoped to be back in your own damn body, in your own damn bed, in your own damn city. Quinn could get the girl booze.

With a smile, she handed over the phone, and you told her you only needed to make one quick phone call and then you’d give her it back. She seemed totally fine with you doing so, so Quinn had to be friends with her, and then retreated back in the dorm room.

Calling yourself seemed like the safest bet, and if you couldn’t get through or they didn’t pick up, you’d call Rachel. She always answered her phone, and you’d managed to memorise that number because she was a sucker for picking up dinner for you after her late classes.

Dialling your number first, you waited with bated breath. It kept ringing, and you thought it was going to ring out, but no, someone answered it.

“Hello?” Was that what you sounded like? Really? God, you had a good voice.

“Quinn?” you asked nervously, needing this to be her in your body because otherwise this mind fuck was going to get so much worse. And ugh, you were beginning to sound more and more like Quinn as you woke up fully. This was horrible. This was fucking awful.

“Santana? Is that you?” she replied, and your shoulders dropped in relief.

“Please tell me you’ve come to the same disgusting realisation I have.”

“You’re me,” she gritted out, and you began nodding even though she couldn’t see it.

“And you’re me.”

She immediately began freaking the fuck out, and it took you a good minute to get her to shut the fuck up. She could whine and bitch later, when she was using her own damn minutes to do it.

“You need to get the girl across the hall booze,” you threw in after she asked you whose number you were calling from. If it had been her phone, her picture would have come up on your phone’s display.

“Santana!” she cried, and ugh, could she stop? She was probably going to attract Kurt and Rachel’s attention, not to mention damage your voice.

“What? I needed to talk to you and I can’t get in your phone. What’s your password?” you asked, grabbing her phone and waiting to put the digits in.

“Two-three-eight-four,” she muttered, and you frowned at the tone. Then it clicked as you hit the numbers on the keypad. Beth. Of course.

“We’ll talk about that later,” you sang, but she was quick to shut you down.

“No, we won’t.” God, was she always this moody? That can’t be good for your body.

“Whatever. I’ll call you back.”

“Wait! What’s yours? If you’re using my phone, I at least want to use yours,” Quinn argued, and you rolled your eyes, but even that wasn’t as satisfying.

“Two-Seven-Four-Eight,” you answered, and waited for her reaction. You really had planned on changing it, especially since Britt and you hadn’t spoken in so long, but it was habit. And yeah, didn’t have to wait long for her to get all smug.

“Wow, look at that, maybe we should discuss your password instead-“ she began.

Hanging up abruptly, you headed back to the door and cocked your head out. The other girl still had her door open, and it didn’t take much to get her attention. She accepted the phone back with a smile, and you decided to be nice for a change. She’d done you a favour, and she thought you were Quinn, ugh, so maybe it would be wise to act like her.

“Thank you!” you chimed, plastering on a fake smile. “See you later,” you called back, closing your door behind you, and giving her a quick wave.

That wasn’t too hard. Maybe you could easily pull off being Quinn. Though, Quinn on the other hand was never going to be able to pull off being you. That shit was ridiculous. She might be able to spit venom and glare like the best of them, but she lacked your quick wit and sharp tongue.

Just thinking about it had you faltering. Quinn was going to do so much damage as you. She was going to be sweet and nice and kind and considerate and everything you didn’t want her being to Kurt and Rachel. No. No. Absolutely not. You needed to intervene and shut that shit down before it even started.

Going for Quinn’s phone again, you put in her password and rolled your eyes. If she wasn’t over Beth, or if she was torturing herself with this, then she needed to talk to someone. Fuck, you’d even listen to her pregnancy woes or whatever. Last thing you wanted was her falling off the deep end again.

Once in, you wasted no time in calling yourself. Unlike last time, Quinn answered quickly. She bitched at you for a good five minutes on phone etiquette and it sounded like something right out of Rachel’s mouth. How horrific.

Thankfully, you managed to get her to focus on the situation on hand. There was so much more important shit to think about right now. For starters, you didn’t have a fucking clue where anything was, what the protocols were at Yale, and you had no one to show you around. At least Quinn was going to have Kurt and Rachel.

“The dining halls are closed,” Quinn informed you, and you opted to lie on her bed during this conversation. It felt like it was going to be a long one. “Some of the other places on campus are open but they close early afternoon. Look, if you’re already talking to Marley then just let her take you out, but don’t sleep with her!” Marley must be the girl across the hall, you assumed.

“Geez, you make it sound like I can’t last five minutes without getting laid when you were the one who woke up alone this morning,” you reminded her. God it was weird to hear Quinn’s voice while you spoke. That shit was never going to feel right.

“If you call waking up to Kurt and Rachel’s rendition of My Favourite Things from the Sound of Music waking up alone, then we clearly have different definitions of the word,” Quinn replied, and you rolled your eyes. You had actually gotten used to their musical awakenings, and maybe, though you’d never admit it, maybe you were slightly jealous at having missed out.

“Yep, sure, at least you weren’t about to get fingered by a complete stranger. Who was she anyway? Did you have a good time last night?” you asked, turning it back on Quinn because girl had clearly been keeping a lot of secrets since she’d been up here.

“We’re not talking about it, so you can drop it now,” Quinn replied, and you assumed she was trying to give her ‘no-nonsense’ voice, but on you it only made you cock your eyebrow in consideration. If that’s what you sounded like doing that, you needed to start using in more. That voice could scare the shit out of Freddie Krueger himself.

“Whatever. You’re not even giving me the opportunity to be proud of you, Q, and that’s your loss!  So, what the fuck do you think happened?” you asked, having received most of the information you’d need to at least survive until this mess was cleared up.

“Do you really think I have any clue? Santana, I’m just as lost as you are, except I have to be you for however long this is going to last. You don’t have a job or anything, right?” Quinn sounded completely snooty as she asked.

“Nope, you’re fortunate enough that my parents are still sending me cheques. What about you? You’ve not joined Teen Moms Anonymous or something, right?” Or worse, she’d joined another God Squad and you were going to have to participate. Fuck that for a laugh. You weren’t going.

“You’re going to pay for that.” And maybe you deserved to since she was clearly still hung up on Beth.

“Oh relax already. This is traumatising for the both of us, the least you could do is take that stick out your ass,” you replied, and you definitely had a good point, whether she could see that or not.

“What do we do? I mean, am I to pretend to be you?” Quinn asked, her tone changing from that of before, and you recognised that voice as your vulnerable voice.

“Honestly, I have no clue but we’re probably going to have to do that, at least until we work out what’s going on,” you answered, hoping she could hear how you weren’t taking the piss anymore.

You really didn’t know what was going on, what had happened, or even why this had happened. Nothing made sense. You hadn’t done anything different yesterday than the day before, and you hadn’t made any ludicrous wishes. This just seemed to be a crazy phenomenon.

“We know what’s going on, you’re me, I’m you, we just don’t know why it’s going on,” Quinn mumbled, sounding as put out as you felt.

“You should ask Rachel.”

“Ask her what?”

“She always thought she was a psychic, I’m sure there’s something to it. Drop some hints, see what you get,” you suggested, mentally patting yourself on the back for that thought. Apparently you did listen to your roommates when they spoke, that’s new.

“Are you being serious right now? I can’t tell.” Quinn said, and you rolled your eyes. How couldn’t she tell? This was her voice. Surely she would know what she sounded like when taking the piss.

“Yes I’m being serious. You do that, and I’ll research some on my own.” Brilliant idea.

“You’re going to Google it, aren’t you?”

“Yep! Now, go do your job. Call me if you come up with anything! Oh, and don’t be too nice or anything.” You hung up again and slumped against her pillows.

This was exhausting.

*0*0*

So Google was pretty confusing, and absolutely of no use to your predicament.

Once you’d refined your search, you came across theories of body jumping and astral projection. It all sounded reasonably possible, but not actually like what you were experiencing. The experiences most people were describing in regards to both those theories were limited, only lasting a certain amount of time, or not involving anyone else at all.

What Quinn and you were going through seemed to be a full body swap. Her mind was in your body, your mind was in her body. For that theory, you could hardly find anything. There were a few others on forum pages going on and on about their experience, but it seemed dubious. They spoke about feeling this transformation, their mind travelling, and you sure for shit didn’t.

Sadly, a text from Quinn, or yourself really, told you that she wasn’t getting much from Rachel, either. There was nothing concrete to go on, and it was becoming pretty obvious you were just going to have to see this out. How long it was going to last, you didn’t know, but there really was nothing you could do.

Admitting defeat, you decided to get to know Quinn a little better. Yes, you had been friends with her for years, but being friends and living as them were totally different matters. You needed to know her dirty little secrets, and where better to look than Facebook?

Smirking happily, you were pleased to see that she left herself signed in, and you assumed that was the case with everything else. You’d hunt through her email later. First, you needed to catch up on whom she spoke to, who she was even friends with, and see if she had any private photo albums. Those were always gold.

Unfortunately, the first thing you saw when you loaded up the webpage wasn’t mindless chatter but rather a very popular update status from you, written an hour ago. What the fuck?

_Santana Lopez: I just want to apologise to everyone who I’ve hurt over the years. I took my rage and anger out on all of you when I shouldn’t have. Hopefully, you can forgive me for being so terrible, and I’d love to make it up to you all. It would really mean a lot to me if we could all be friends. Since graduating and never seeing each other for such long periods of time, I think it would be best that we all make a pact to be friends forever. I’ve turned over a new leaf here in New York, and I’d love to move on to a brighter future with all of you at my side. Thank you._

This message was then followed by a shitload of likes and various people commenting. Even fucking Rachel and Kurt were singing your praises about this new you. People actually thought this was you being serious. What the hell? You didn’t want to be friends with half these bastards.

What the fuck had Quinn done?!

Grabbing her phone, you dialled her in a fit of rage. Seriously, was she out of her fucking mind? This was war. War!

“You bitch! You made me nice!” you cried out the second Quinn answered the phone. She chuckled darkly and you made a mental note to start doing that more often because you sounded pretty hot.

“I told you that you were going to pay for that comment about teen moms anonymous,” she sang, and your voice was just fricking gorgeous. Why didn’t you talk more?

There were more pressing issues at hand, of course, and after signing out of Quinn’s account, you tried to sign back into your own. Only it wasn’t accepting your password. You couldn’t do it. You couldn’t get back in.

“Everyone’s fucking liking that bullshit, and what the fuck! You changed my password!” Okay, who was the girl because the Quinn you knew didn’t have the balls to do any of this.

“You shouldn’t have been rude to me!” Quinn replied, as if that made it all better.

“Oh, well fuck that. Who haven’t you screwed up here because I’m going to make a list and tick them off.” You weren’t, but you were pissed at her and that was definitely enough to freak her out.

“Don’t you dare,” she hollered, and yeah, you were right, she was shitting herself. It also implied that your guess had been correct; she’d screwed more than just that girl last night.

“Change my password back then,” you argued, wanting back in your account. As you spoke, you quickly signed back into hers. If she had changed yours, then you were going to do the same.

“No,” Quinn said simply.

“Oh, then I guess I should start with Marley. You haven’t fucked her yet, have you? Or was there some drunken nights in fresher’s week I don’t know about?”

“Santana,” she barked, and alright, that voice had you freezing. You needed to work out how to do that for future reference.

But hell, she sounded panicked and really angry, and maybe you needed to think this through some more. She was in your body, after all.

“Relax, alright? I won’t, but can you please go delete that message?” Surely that was a decent compromise.

“I can’t. You’ve made so many friends from it, I don’t want to jeopardise this development,” Quinn replied, sounding highly amused by this turn of events.

“How do you feel about tattoos? I remember you had that hideous Ryan Seacrest tattoo on your back, but Puckerman told me it was fake. You were too much of a chicken shit to get the real deal, but how about I help you with that? What would you like? Jesus on the cross over your vagina? Or maybe Judas up between your shoulder blades?”

 “If you want to play this game, we’ll play. You forget that I actually like Rachel and hanging out with her isn’t painful for me. So maybe I should go bond with her, you know, become like best friends with the girl,” she sassed back, and whatever, like that was a threat.

“Oh please, you’d never do that because you know once I got my body back I’d be a bitch and it would hurt her feelings. But hey, are you going to be okay living with her twenty four seven? I know that gigantic crush you had on her probably hasn’t gone away and being with her might bring back those feelings. Are you sure you’ll manage?” you asked, sounding concerned.

“I did not have a crush on her,” Quinn spat back, quick on the defence, and you chuckled. Okay, how had you never noticed that she sounded pretty hot when she did that? Forcing that thought for another time, you shook your head and responded.

“Yeah right! You wanted to hump her legs like a dog every time she performed, and I do not give you permission to do that in my body so don’t get any ideas now that you’re with her.” That would be sickening. Horrifying. Your body would never recover.

“I’m not going to be doing anything with her,” Quinn replied, sounding bored with you already.

“Good, that’s just like me then. You actually might be able to pull this off,” you chimed, content to hear that.

“Are we really going to do this?” she asked again, and fucking hell, could she not keep track?

“What else would you have us do? Q, I have no idea what caused this, let alone how to change us back. Let’s just play it out.”

“I’m not sure I’ll be a very convincing you.” Yeah, you weren’t buying that. Of course she wouldn’t be you exactly, but she had the bitch aspect of her personality to pick up the slack. You were pretty certain she was more worried about you being her. “Why don’t you come down here until we get this sorted out?” she suggested, and yeah, you were certain your theory was correct.

“I’m not going anywhere. This shit happened with both of us in different states, I don’t think us being in the same room will help.”

“Santana-“

“What are you hiding up here? Like, I get that you’re banging girls left, right and centre and haven’t told anyone, fine, okay? That’s yours to tell when you’re ready. But what else?”

“I have not been ‘banging girls left, right and centre’ as you so crudely put it,” she argued back and you rolled your eyes. Girl was in denial. The proof was all over her Facebook, which you were still hunting through.

She had access to private photo albums and yeah, if she hadn’t fucked at least four of the girls in that picture then you were really Kurt’s pillow boyfriend, Bruce. The way they were looking at her, the way Quinn’s hands were so familiar with each of them in this album, you wouldn’t be surprised to hear if she’d had an orgy after whatever party they were at.

“Alright, making love to an abundant number of girls then, whatever-“ you said, attempting not to be so crude.

“No, not whatever. Look, just leave it.” Quinn sighed and you felt your shoulders slump in defeat. You hadn’t wanted to put her in a bad mood or upset her.

“Q,” you began, fully ready to apologise for your shit actions but she wasn’t having any of it.

“No, I don’t want to talk about this. Be nice to Marley, she’s sweet and a close friend. Don’t…don’t sleep with anyone or kiss anyone, alright? And if you haven’t already, look at the girls in that private album on Facebook. Stay away from all of them, please.” She sounded beaten and you ran a hand through your hair in frustration.

“I’ll be good, I promise,” you said softly, trying to get her to believe you.

“Okay, I better go.” Without another word, Quinn hung up and you were left in silence.

Alright, that didn’t go well at all, and now you felt like shit. You were also starving, and while you couldn’t fix Quinn’s mood, you could eat. Maybe. You’d need to enlist the help of Marley if she was still around, she seemed like the helpful type.

With a plan in action, you set about your first day of being Quinn Fabray. God, this really was a nightmare.

*0*0*


	2. Chapter 2

*0*0*

Being Quinn, as it turned out, was much harder than you thought. The girl seemed to know everyone. You couldn't help but be thankful that it was break on campus, because seriously, so many people were smiling at you, stopping to say hi, and it was getting pretty hard to keep track of everything. They were talking of hanging out or a class together and you had fucking nothing to contribute.

Marley ended up being your lifesaver. She could clearly see you were out of your depth, and she seemed to take pity on you, claiming that the two of you were running late. In actual fact, you were only going to get some food, but her excuse meant folks were more likely to shut the hell up than want to tag along. You really weren't sure how you'd be able to handle more than one person at a time, because it was hard as hell to pull off Quinn's mannerisms.

You would have rolled your eyes and scrunched up your nose in disgust at least six times before you reached your destination; and none of that would have been very Quinn like. Plus, she didn't swear, which was almost impossible to cut out. Poor Marley practically gave herself whiplash when you said fuck by mistake.

Thankfully, she didn't mention it, and by then the two of you had arrived. She'd wanted to go off campus for something to eat, which you had no problem with, although you still needed to work that mess out later, and that's how you found yourself in this hokey little place.

You wasted no time ordering, praying to God that Quinn hadn't suddenly become a vegetarian, and Marley did the same. Then the two of you were left to fill the void. That was harder than you anticipated as she kept referring to things you had no clue about, but once she started talking about her boyfriend it was easy for you just to hum and nod in agreement.

How Quinn ever became friends with her, however, was beyond you. The Quinn you knew would eat girls like her alive. Then again, Quinn had turned over a new leaf with Rachel, so maybe she was doing the same here.

“Quinn, are you okay? You're a bit...off,” Marley said, giving you a concerned look. Crap. Clearly you weren't doing a very good job.

“Huh? No, I'm fine, just not feeling well.” That was definitely a plausible excuse given the state you woke up in that morning. Shooting a quick glance round the place, you checked to see if the girl you'd woken up with was in sight. Thankfully, she was not, and you could breathe easy.

“That, I'm not surprised to hear,” Marley added, playing with the straw in her juice. You cocked your eyebrow and she squirmed in her seat, tucking her hair behind her ears before leaning forward across the table. “You weren't exactly quiet when you came back to the dorms last night, and Melody's not known for being quiet.” You weren't sure what to say to that. You couldn't agree nor deny because you had no idea.

Just then, your food arrived, and that allowed a natural pause in the conversation as you both ate. The silence gave you time to think, and you were now regretting not taking Quinn up on her offer to come up or for you to go down to New York. You'd probably only be able to pull this off for a few days, at most, because you just didn't know what was going on. If you had the history, knew more about the folk in her life, you definitely wouldn't have any problems, but Quinn really wasn't being forthcoming, and that led you back to feeling guilty for earlier.

You honestly hadn't meant to pry or push, but hello, you were in shock. Surely she would understand that.

“Oh, don't look now,” Marley murmured, attempting to swallow her food as she spoke, her hand in front of her mouth. Your automatic reaction was to look, but you fought instinct and frowned, waiting to hear what she was going to say. “Jules just walked in with Rhian. They haven't seen you yet, but they'll need to walk past us. Bad day to be you, huh?”

Was it? You didn't have a fucking clue who either of those girls were, but Marley was wincing like she didn't want them coming over, and you could only assume they weren't friends of Quinn's. But then again, maybe they were and Marley just didn't like them or something innocent like that.

Yeah, wishful thinking.

When the two girls came into your line of sight, you bit your bottom lip as you recognised one from the album on Facebook. Quinn had warned you to stay away from them, and she hadn't provided any other information, so you had no idea if the other girl was someone you weren't meant to be around either. Marley seemed to give the impression that you wouldn't like their presences, but why?

Looking them over, and judging them to shit, you deduced that if Quinn had screwed both of these girls she was clearly rocking some wicked game. The taller of the two was a natural beauty and if you'd met someone like her in New York, you'd have definitely tried for at least one night with her.

Both of them were darker in complexion than Quinn, with one lighter than yourself. She was the shorter girl, and it was her eyes that met yours first. She cocked her head to the side and a lazy smile cropped up her lips, and okay, she was pretty gorgeous, too.

Alerting the other girl to your presence, she smiled as well, though it was more contained, and then they headed straight for your table. Marley was giving you a curious look, and in an honest move, you shrugged your shoulders. You really had no clue what you were up to, because you were practically smiling at them, inviting them over for conversation you wouldn't understand, so it was fair she knew that, too.

“Quinn, hey! And Marley,” the taller of the two said, giving you a more genuine smile. It probably would have meant to something if you knew who she was.

“Hi, Jules,” Marley replied rather quietly, giving a slight wave. She kept her eyes focused on her food, and you cocked your eyebrow in curiosity. You'd work out what was with that later, but now you knew which was which, so

“Jules, Rhian,” you greeted, hoping they wouldn't find your rather plain hello rude. It did earn you a curious look from Jules, but why, you had no idea. Seriously, there were so many things you needed to ask Quinn.

“Long time no see, Q,” Jules remarked, and you felt like a deer in headlights.

“Really?” you tried, hoping that would be non-committal enough to work. However, your Santana was slipping through and it sounded a lot more bitchier than you had anticipated.

Frowning at your reply, Jules looked between Marley and yourself, and then her eyebrows rose and a smirk crossed her features, which had you thrown. What the hell was she smirking over? And why did Marley look like she wanted the ground to swallow her up whole?

“We're not interrupting anything, are we? We only wanted to say hi, but I mean...this isn't like a date or anything? Please tell me that you two aren't an item.” She scrunched up her nose in disgust, shooting you a 'really?' look, which had you frowning. What the fuck was her problem?

“I have a boyfriend,” Marley murmured, shaking her head softly, squirming in her seat again.

“So do I,” Jules joked, shooting a smile to Rhian, who looked away uncomfortably. She had yet to speak, but if the company she was with was any indication, you were going to assume Quinn wouldn't want you talking with her either.

“I actually care about my boyfriend,” Marley muttered in reply, picking up her class and having a drink. You shot her a small smile, which she thankfully caught.

“Well, nice seeing you both,” you said, giving them a fake smile, hoping that would get the message.

“Come on,” Rhian murmured, placing her hand on Jules' arm. She gave you another smile, while Jules pursed her lips. Clearly she wanted to say something, but she was biting her tongue. Good, because you were not in the mood to be handling bitchy girls that you've probably slept with.

“Yeah, have a nice lunch. I'll be sure to pass on to Harper that I saw you.” That sounded like a threat, but you had no clue how. Jules was looking at you like she was expecting a reaction, but yeah, that wasn't possible. You'd never heard of a Harper, and you hadn't seen one while snooping on Facebook.

Seeing that she wasn't going to get one, and with Rhian giving her an imploring look, Jules finally walked away; the two of them grabbed a table in the back. With their departure, Marley let out a relieved sigh, and leant her forehead on her hand.

“She's just like I remember. Honestly, Q, what did you see in her?” You were wondering the same thing; another question to be filed away for later.

You apologised for practically inviting them over, and as you suspected, Marley was quick to forgive you, saying it would have happened anyway. Yeah, you thought as much as well, but if you hadn't looked at them, maybe they would have changed their mind.

When Marley and you finished your lunches, she got up to pay the bill, with you having thrown her some money in the hopes that would help cover it. Quinn apparently liked to keep notes in her pockets, which was nice to learn. You'd totally take advantage of that fact later and have a good raid.

Having left you alone at the table, you mindlessly looked out the window and okay, you could maybe understand what Quinn liked about New Haven. It had a charm to it that definitely suited her style. Regardless of whatever the hell was going on in her personal life, you could at least be satisfied that she was in a good place.

The sound of someone taking a seat opposite you had you looking up, and you expected to see Marley, but instead you were reminded once again on the aforementioned personal life you knew nothing about.

“Hey,” Rhian said, almost shy like. So you still weren't sure about her.

“Hi,” you replied, tucking your hair behind your ears as you did so.

She looked you over, allowing you to do the same in more detail, before sitting back, biting her lip at you. Unsure what her next move was going to be, you sat forward, leaning on your elbows, and cocked your eyebrow at her. That made her smile and she looked away, rolling her eyes.

“You never called me,” Rhian finally said, and alright, now things made a lot more sense. At least you could guess a rough history.

“Oh?” It really wasn't meant to be a question. Nodding, Rhian ran her hand through her hair, ruffing it wildly.

“Did I...Jules said you wouldn't, but I kinda hoped....” she paused and you tried to keep your expression blank. You were certain, absolutely certain this wasn't a girl in the Facebook album, so you had no clue how you were to proceed. “I heard from Melody that you chucked her out this morning...I guess I should just be thankful you didn't do that to me,” Rhian finished, ducking her eyes to the table.

“Shit,” you grunted, wondering how pissed Quinn would be when she learnt that you'd chucked a girl out of her room. “Look, that's worse than it sounds. I wasn't well, splitting headache, hungover-”

“You drank last night? I thought you didn't drink,” she asked quickly, narrowing her eyes sceptically.

Fuck, now it just seemed like you were lying for the sake of it.

“Yeah, just a few.” And when had Quinn stopped drinking? You knew she was super sensitive to it after Beth, but you were certain she was past that. Well, past the circumstances surrounding Beth, not actually Beth herself, as you already knew.

“I guess...you're not going to...we're not...” This was getting painful for you, because you could see this girl was looking for some kind of sign, some message that whatever her feelings for Quinn were, that they were returned. She was in too deep, and you had no way of helping her out.

“I don't know,” you answered honestly, and it was probably a really shitty answer because it suggested there was a possibility and you had no clue if that was true.

“Well, when you do, can you let me know? I get it, okay? I do, but, Q...” Rhian shook her head, cutting herself off, and gave you a pained smile. “I'll let you go; Marley's read the menu about six times already.”

You glanced round and right enough, Marley was perusing the menu once more, despite probably knowing it off by heart. She clearly didn't think you needed saving from whatever this situation was, which you took a little comfort from. Rhian apparently wasn't bad enough for Marley to worry about. Now you had a little more faith in Quinn's ability to pick girls.

“I'll see you around,” Rhian said, and you nodded, trying not to act like an emotionless douche, but failing miserably. She walked away, with Marley giving her a friendly smile as she dropped herself back in the chair opposite you.

“What was that about?” she asked, looking at you curiously.

“I have no idea.” But you were going to find out.

*0*0*

Arriving back at your dorm room, you wasted no time in kicking off your shoes, throwing off your jeans, and grabbing Quinn's phone. You weren't going out again, you were exhausted and needed to sleep, but first you had to find out how Quinn was doing with everything.

You weren't expecting her to answer so quickly, assuming that she might actually be busy with Rachel and Kurt (and God, you weren't going to start on how you missed those idiots), but she answered almost instantly.

“Thank God you called, how are you doing?” she asked, sounding stressed, and your eyebrows rose in response. Alrighty then, clearly someone was having a good time. And God, you'd missed that voice.

“What's up? Everything okay?” You really didn't mean to sound so concerned, and you were beginning to think that was just a common feature of Quinn's voice.

“Yeah...This is just taking some time to adjust to,” she replied, and that, you could understand. “Rachel and Kurt have been amazing, and I never realised how much I missed them. But you're all alone up there, and I don't think..are you okay? How's it been going?” Her worry was rather sweet.

“It's been interesting,” you replied, shrugging your shoulders as you began opening the drawers of her desk. She had a shit-ton of books and stationary, which wasn't exciting at all. There was still some of the Quinn you knew tucked up in whoever she was now.

“That doesn't sound good. Did you speak to Marley?” she asked, and you hummed in agreement, having come across some photos she had tucked away. You were thinking they'd be juicy, but no, they were of Beth, and yeah, she was still majorly hung up on her.

“Yeah, we went to get lunch, I just got back,” you said, putting the pictures back and moving onto another drawer.

“And that was hard?” Rooting around another drawer proved fruitless, so you moved towards her wardrobe. She'd definitely have her secrets slipped away in there out of sight.

“No, but we kinda ran into some people.” That was the best way to say that, you reasoned.

Earlier, you had grabbed the clothing that had been lying out on the chair, but now you were actually seeing Quinn's clothing style for the first time in months. It really hadn't changed. There were a few more shirts than before, and she was clearly trying to rock this pretentious look, but it wasn't too painful. Well, in comparison to what you wore regularly, it probably was going to be. You'd feel like a nun in most of this. However, it could have been worse.

“Who?” Quinn asked, sounding a little on edge. Of course she was, you were running around up here unsupervised, learning more about her life in six hours than she'd told you within the last six months.

“Q, can I get an honest answer for a change?” you began, being unsatisfied that she didn't seem to have things hidden away. Her laptop would probably be fruitful, and you'd need to look at that later. “Who's Rhian, and why didn't you tell me about her? She wasn't in the Facebook album, and I had to sit through a painful conversation with her trying to work out what was going on with you. Why didn't you call her back? Girl is clearly into you,” you went on to say, grumbling the last part because hello, that conversation with her was so awkward for you.

“What?!” Quinn replied, sounding startled. God, you could even pull that emotion off whilst sounding attractive, and that beat the almost depressed voice she was using earlier.

“Rhian, short, brunette, possibly Hispanic-” you answered, listing her qualities.

“I know who she is, Santana,” Quinn barked. Seriously, if your career plans ever fell through, you could be a voice-over or some shit because it was perfection.

“Well then why the fuck did you ask? And seriously, why didn't you call her back?” For what ever reason, you were feeling rather sorry for the girl. It was certainly a new emotion for you.

“You've been speaking to her?”

“Obviously,” you spat. You thought you had made that clear. “Now come on, she seems like a nice girl, what's up with not calling her?”

Quinn groaned loudly on the phone, and then you heard Rachel asking her if everything was alright. She fobbed off an excuse quickly and called out that she was going for a walk. Rudely, she told you to wait a minute, and you heard her clattering about.

A minute or so later, she was closing the apartment door and asking you to give her a minute. You heard her walking down the bustling street while you got comfy on her bed, staring up at the ceiling, one arm behind your head.

“Alright, I'm here,” Quinn finally said, and then you heard her sigh. “What did Rhian say exactly?”

“What does it matter? Seriously, Q.” It wasn't like she was going to give you much of an answer.

“Fine, I guess it doesn't.” Another sigh, and you were rolling your eyes. “She's a bit more than a one-night stand but we never really defined it. I'm not...we're not dating.” Alright, maybe she was going to give you a bit of an answer. But she'd probably left loads out, and you still had questions.

“And I wasn't warned about her because?”

“Because she's harmless, and actually, I thought she'd gone home for the break,” Quinn admitted, her voice quiet.

“Well she didn't, so I had a great time trying to work out if I could talk to her when she was with Jules.”

“You met Jules?” And now Quinn was back to sounding worried. Could the girl pick an emotion and stick with it? None of that could be good for your body.

“Yep, but don’t worry, I didn't say anything inappropriate or flirt or flip out or whatever else you were scared I'd do. I was perfectly well behaved, enough for them to believe I was the wonderful Quinn Fabray,” you drawled, a little stung that she was still keeping you in the dark about so much.

You'd been talking to her for months, with regular Skype chats and you had told her about your life in New York. But clearly she had only been giving you part of the story. For whatever reason, you weren't deemed worthy enough for the other. Some friendship this was.

“San,” Q replied, and you hated that tone because you knew it too well. It was the one laced with pain, with pleading, and it made your chest ache. Ugh.

“It's fine. Ignore me.” That was probably the safest thing to do .

“Look, I haven't told anyone because I didn't want a big deal being made of it. I'm just trying to work things out,” Quinn said, sounding unsure, sounding worried, and now you just felt like a jackass for making her talk about it.

“I get that, alright? I get it, but fuck, Quinn, I'm living your life right now. Marley could see I was acting weird, and Rhian and Jules kept giving me looks. I can't exactly pull this off without your help.”It was true, so true, and the two of you needed to start working together on this shit.

“I know, I know,” she moaned quietly, as if she did know but didn't want to accept it.

“Oh, and Jules mentioned something that didn't make sense; who the fuck is Harper and should I be worried?” At this rate, you were just going to be worried on default.

“What?” This time, when Quinn asked, she sounded rather terrified, and you frowned in shock. What was with that reaction. “What..what did she...what did she say?” Quinn asked quickly, a light edge to her voice.

“Just that she'd pass on to Harper that she saw me. Why?”

“Nothing, just forget about it,” Quinn murmured.

“Fuck's sake, Q. I can't forget about it. What the hell do I do if whoever this Harper chick is comes over and speaks to me?” You didn't even want to think of the possibility.

“She won't, she's not on campus.”You'd heard those words before.

“You thought Rhian wasn't on campus, and look how that turned out,” you grumbled.

“I know for a fact Harper isn't on campus, so can you please just drop it.”

“You're so fucking grouchy right now, what is your deal? This isn't easy for me, Q.” Understatement of the century.

“I know, and I'm sorry but God, Santana, I didn't want anyone knowing about my life right now. I don't want a million questions, which is why I never told anyone. I kept it private, and that's the way I want it to stay.”

“Whatever I find out, I won't tell anyone,” you said seriously, trying so hard for her understand that.

Quinn didn't say anything in reply, though, and you felt a bit gutted by that. It was as if she didn't believe, or trust, you, which definitely stung. You sighed loudly, unable to really top it, as if her body needed to expel those thoughts quickly; and then asked her what she got up to.

It was enough of a topic change not to cause any problems, and you were thankful to have her speaking to you again. Her brief silence was unnerving because really, if the two of you stopped speaking, you'd be screwed. You needed her right now. You also needed a shower, and that was the next challenge ahead.

By the time the conversation had wound down, and you had located clean towels and toiletries, you were ready to broach the topic. Thankfully, Quinn kinda gave you the best opening you were going to get.

“So what are you going to do now? Kurt's taking us to some restaurant he found, it doesn't sound that great, but Rachel's excited.” Rachel was always excited, she practically inhaled all New York had to offer, even if it was shit.

“I need a shower, where about are they?” You hadn't seen them and God, you couldn't ask Marley. Girl would think you'd lost your fucking marbles...but then again, you were Quinn so maybe that wouldn't be a bad thing.

“You can't shower,” Quinn hissed, and what the fuck was up her ass? Yeah, you assumed she'd react badly but Christ, she didn't have to abuse your vocal chords like that.

“What? Why not?” you replied, frowning with an eye roll.

“Because...” Yeah, what a great fucking reason that was, Quinn.

“Oh Christ, are you serious right now? Newsflash, I've seen you naked, relax.” Cheerios was a given, but hell, even for the quick costume changes in Glee, you'd caught the odd boob now and then. Not literally of course, because that would be an entirely different story.

“God, I'm well aware you've seen me naked, Santana, but in order to shower you have to wash yourself, and I do not want your hands all over my body,” she grounded out, sounding mortified. Please.

“Technically, it's your hands that'll be all over your body. And are you fucking kidding me? I'm not going to molest you, you freak, I just need to freshen up. Do you expect me to not wash while we're stuck like this?” She had to be delusional if she thought yes, there was just no other excuse.

“I don't like it,” Quinn replied, and pft, of course she didn't. You were well aware.

“I don't care,” you said, and then scowled, “And FYI, do what you need with my body; I don't have an issue.” You weren't going to be a weirdo like her.

Sighing at you, Quinn finally gave you the location of the showers. It had you smirking happily, and you bid her goodbye, telling her to have a good time with Kurt and Rachel, but not to be too nice to the later. Seriously, she was just going to ruin your relationship with them, you were sure of it. Once you got your body back, you were going to have to be a major bitch to remind them that you hadn't changed.

Finding the bathrobe in her wardrobe, you began stripping off. Like you'd said to Quinn, this really wasn't anything you hadn't seen before, and it wasn't like you were perving on her. However, any excuse to fuck with the girl.

Grabbing her phone, you sent her a text message, and continued getting undressed as you awaited her reply.

_Seriously Q this is what you look like naked up close, not bad at all, not bad at all! - S_

It really didn't take long at all.

_Santana, so help me God, you will cease and desist whatever it is you are doing to my body!_

Yeah, perfect reaction. You just loved being able to wind her up.

_My body, at least until however long we’re stuck like this. Just be glad I haven't gone for a piss yet._

_You’re not allowed to do that!_

_Yeah? Well tell your tiny bladder to sort its shit out because I’m not going to be able to hold forever._

Please, she was lucky you hadn't gone already.

_We will not be stuck like this forever!_

You chuckled under your breath at her reply and headed out of the room in search of the showers. She needed to get with the programme. The two of you still didn't have a clue what was going on, therefore you really didn't see a solution any time soon.

Quinn just needed to start accepting the fact that by the end of this, whatever this was, the two of you were going to know more about each other than you ever wanted to.

*0*0*


	3. Chapter 3

*0*0*

Getting To Know You

*0*0*

It was safe to say that there was going to be some adjustment needed when it came to being Quinn, and while you thought you were still doing a good job, you really didn't know enough about her to pull it off convincingly.

For the last two days or so, you'd made it work, but you'd had to tell Marley you were still a little out of sorts, and you'd seen those girls around again and it was obvious you were avoiding them. It wasn't like you needed a detailed description of what Quinn was up to for every minute of every day. You just needed to know the basics, because apparently they had changed.

You really didn't want to dwell on the fact that Quinn had kept her new life completely hidden, tiding away secrets and pretending like nothing was going on. Now you were thinking of every excuse she had given you for fobbing off on the Skype sessions you two had arranged; from a paper due, roommate drama, internet connection down, and everything in between, they now felt like lies, even if some of them weren't.

The reasonable part of you said that you should wait, give Quinn some time, and just wait for her to open up to you, but the other part, the overriding part of you was saying fuck that; girl had had enough time to come clean, and this was a dire situation.

That's how you found yourself in Quinn's email, her student email as well as her personal one. She clearly must have been having too much fun in New York with your roommates to think of changing the passwords for them, which was stupid for her and brilliant for you.

Her personal email had already been logged in, and you searched through what she had in her inbox, and then her neatly organised files, and came up with nothing. Basically, she kept in touch with the other glee club members and a few Cheerios, spinning them the same story you knew. There were a few overly friendly ones to Rachel which had you grimacing because how those two hadn't fucked was beyond you, but other than that, nada.

It was severely disappointing.

Her college email wasn't much better, either, to be honest.

You were hoping to discover this torrid affair she was having with that manky old professor she had mentioned, but nothing. You searched folder after folder and read dull email after dull email and kept drawing a blank.

This was the Quinn Fabray you knew, this was the girl you went to school with. Everything about it was with the same studious care and attention you were used to seeing from her. Which made you think, where the fuck was all the good stuff?

She had her skeletons hidden somewhere, but as of yet, you had no clue where. That would change, you were certain of it. It needed to if you were going to survive as Quinn Fabray.

*0*0*

Later on in the afternoon, while you curled up on Quinn's bed, watching your shows online and eating junk food, you heard her phone going off. It had rang a few times before, and you had seen unknown names flash up so you let them go to voicemail, but this time, the name flashing up was yours, and hey, there was your gorgeous face.

"Hey," you greeted, smiling as you paused your show and began moving things off of the bed so you could sit up a bit.

"Hi," Quinn replied. "Is it weird that I've missed talking to you?" she asked, and okay, that had you smiling some more. You two had spoken yesterday, but most of it was via text messages.

"I think you mean you've missed hearing the sound of your own voice because I damn well know I have." And God, wasn't it glorious to hear it again.

"Actually, no…I find it pretty creepy hearing my own voice. I sound different," she pointed out.

"I sound hot," you declared, shrugging. It was fact.

"Of course you would think that," Quinn drawled, and you could hear the disdain in her voice. Whatever.

"Well, I do! You can't deny this, Q; my voice is sexy as fuck." Like you said, fact.

"You have issues." Pft. You did not have issues. She had issues.

"Hmmm, no, actually, you're the one with issues. No one can keep this many secrets and not have issues." Seriously, she had to have shit buried so deep down and have some twisted mind to keep track of it all. It couldn't have been easy.

"Back on that topic, I see." Yeah, definite disdain in her voice now. Clearly, she was tired of this shit. But so were you.

"If you maybe addressed the topic, I wouldn't have to keep bringing it up." And then the two of you could just move on. There were definitely bigger things to deal with, like hello, you were still in each other's bodies.

"I appreciate you caring, but I'd kindly appreciate if you butted out of my business." So that was your 'I'm growing tired of your shit' voice. You'd be offended any other day but you were hoping to push through and find out what was going on with her.

"Right, like that's going to work. Please, did you forget who you're talking to? I may sound like you, but don't forget it's still me, Santana Lopez, HBIC." Quinn snorted at that, and God, you were going to have to whip her ass for making that unattractive noise while in your body.

"I hate to break it to you, but you were never HBIC, that was all me, sweetie." The term of endearment was patronising as fuck, and you knew if the two of you were in the same room you'd be squaring off right about now. "You were my stepping stone on the pyramid, after all. Plus, the whole of McKinley knew it was me they had to be worried about. You were all bark and no bite."

No bite. No bite?! Yeah, you would have slapped the shit out of her by now, so maybe it was a saving grace the two of you weren't in the same room. You didn't exactly want to beat up your gorgeous face. Quinn probably would have no qualms about knocking herself about, that masochist.

"Please, I was the one initiating terror through the hallways; you were just the moody teen mom."

"Santana," she growled, and fuck, you should have avoided the Beth card. Oops.

"Shit, sorry, I keep forgetting you're still hung up on that." She made an exasperated sound and you fought the urge to tell her off. "Have you ever spoken to anyone about what happened?" you asked, carefully and tentatively. You kinda expected her to bite your head off, so you were attempting you use her soothing voice.

"Sort of," she replied, sounding tired all of a sudden. "It's hard, I guess." There was no guessing about it, it was clearly too hard for her.

"Well, you know I'm always-"

"Santana, don't," she warned, and it had you frowning.

"No, come on, we're friends. If you need someone to talk to then you can talk to me-"

"Talk to you? Are you serious?" she laughed humourlessly, and ouch, that stung. "If I tell you anything, you'll throw it back in my face at some point down the line, and I'd really rather not have my personal feelings about giving up my daughter being fodder to your vindictiveness."

Shit.

Swallowing away the lump in your throat, you looked round the room with a frown, unsure what to say exactly. Quinn was silent on the line and it was obvious she realised she'd gone too far. You knew where to draw the line. You knew what was to remain private and what wasn't.

"I've got to go," you muttered, rising to your feet and running a hand through your hair. "Talk to you later." With that, you hung up before you could hear her say any more.

You really couldn't do anything right with her, and it was driving you insane. Did she not understand that you actually had feelings, too? Did she not get that you were stung by all her secrets and all her lies? Well fuck it, and fuck her.

Grabbing your keys, you nipped across the hall and knocked on Marley's door. You needed to get out, to let loose, but as of yet, you had no idea where to do that, and Marley was a good enough friend throughout this that you were pretty sure you could count on her here.

"You want to go get drunk?" you asked as soon as the door opened, and Marley raised her eyebrows at you in surprise.

"Sure," she said, shrugging once the shock had worn off. Good girl, you might finally be able to have some fun. "Just give me few minutes to get ready?" Marley asked, and you gave her a nod, returning to your room to grab your things.

Checking your purse one last time before heading out, you confirmed that Quinn's fake ID was present, and that you had enough cash to splurge. You'd make sure to pay her back for whatever you were about to spend, but hell, she at least owed you a few drinks for that bullshit she just pulled.

"Ready?" you asked when Marley returned, and with a smile and nod, the two of you went on your way. Finally, some normality with a night of drinking and, hopefully, debauchery ahead. You were so ready for it.

*0*0*

Marley had led you to what was apparently Quinn's normal haunt. It was pretty quiet, but there was still an abundant number of students around to make it suitable for what you had in mind tonight. Apparently Marley had no issue getting served alcohol here, even with her questionable ID, but she couldn't purchase booze in a store.

To make up for this night, and because you'd already technically promised her, you were definitely going to get the girl some booze for when her boyfriend arrived. She was being a lifesaver where you shouldn't have needed one, and by coming with you to let off steam, she was also looking out for your ass, which was nice considering. Of course, she still thought you were Quinn, but whatever. You could appreciate a nice gesture, even if she didn't know she was doing it in the first place.

Finding an empty table, you sat your ass down while she brought the drinks over. You promised to get the next round, and she nodded in agreement, before taking a hefty drink and sighing. That was the spirit. Following suit, you welcomed the familiar taste. All that was missing was your crazy ass roommates, but no, you could be homesick or whatever another night, tonight was about having fun.

Marley was actually fucking brilliant once she had loosened up a bit, and once your guard was down, you found the two of you getting on great. Some of the things she mentioned, you still weren't familiar with, but you knew enough to make it work, and you made sure that you were careful with what you shared. But there were common grounds, and then she was divulging new information and you were giving advice and then next round, next round, next round.

It was no surprise that the alcohol was having a bigger effect than normal, seeing as you'd been munching on junk food earlier and hadn't exactly had a meal today. Whatever, it was wasn't your body, you could eat what you like. Quinn could work off whatever weight you ended up putting on.

So while it was still early in the evening, and really, you would have been embarrassed had you been this drunk this early in New York, but clearly Quinn had different tolerance levels than you. She was always a lightweight, even when she claimed otherwise, so you were going with it.

Thankfully, Marley was a lightweight too, which shouldn't have been surprising at all, and she was drunk right along with you. Girl was so much more fun like this, but it was probably rude to say as much.

When you'd both finished the current round, you excused yourself and headed to rest-room. Marley was on the phone to her boyfriend before you'd even vacated your seat, and you laughed at her drunken ass and how she'd probably regret that call tomorrow. Whatever, you'd warned her, but she was insistent, and so was your bladder.

Walking was a whole other issue you weren't expecting, because you were a freaking pro at walking drunk, but Quinn clearly hadn't had much experience, and it took you a while to coordinate yourself enough to make it into the toilet.

A part of you considered texting Quinn out of spite to tell her you were drunk off your ass and that she had the tiniest bladder on the planet, but you were pretty sure that she'd be so angry with you she'd find a way to come up to Yale and beat your ass, and no, you didn't want that, so you'd save it for tomorrow.

So yeh, you were still hurt by her words, but fuck it, you were determined to have a good time.

Once out the rest room, you began making your way back through the bar. It seemed to have filled up a little more since you last saw it, which made you wonder how long it had taken you to piss. But then your thoughts were elsewhere.

"Hey!" You heard someone yell, and didn't think anything of it, but then someone's hand was on your arm and fuck no. Snixx was ready to bust their ass. It was only pure luck, really, that you saw a familiar face before she could be unleashed.

"Rhian," you called, before shaking your head. "Hey, hi, what are you…hi," you blurted, rolling your eyes at yourself. Way to not look like a weirdo.

"I didn't think I'd see you back here," she said, and you frowned. "Nor did I ever think I'd see you drinking again." Oh right, yeah, Quinn didn't drink. What the fuck was up with that?

"I needed to let loose a little." And teach Quinn a lesson.

"So should I warn the girls that you're only looking for a one night stand and that you might chuck them out in the morning?" she joked, a small smile playing on her lips, and you found yourself blushing under the gaze. Fucking alcohol.

"That was one time, and I learnt my lesson." Had you?

"So did Melody," she sassed, and okay, maybe you could see the charm of this girl. She could certainly keep Quinn on her toes, and that shit was necessary when it came to that crackpot.

Shrugging indifferently, you gave her an innocent smile, which earned you a chuckle. Rhian was then eyeing you up, not in a sexual way, but trying to pick up on whatever was new. Clearly, you still sucked at being Quinn. No surprise there.

"You're different." Yep, you weren't pulling this off.

"Hmm?" You really didn't want to say anything else, it could have been your Santana slipping into Quinn and that wouldn't fly.

"I don't know, I just think you've changed. You're more rough round the edges – don't get me wrong, I like it, but I'm wondering what's changed." Nothing good could come of replying, so you kept quiet, and she chuckled, shaking her head at you, as if she knew you wouldn't answer. "You're not doing it for that girl, are you? Because if she doesn't like you for who you are, then she doesn't deserve you, Q."

"What girl?" you wondered, ignoring everything else she had said. The noise in the bar increased and you had to step closer to hear what she was saying.

"The one in New York, what's her name?" Rhian began clicking her fingers as if to try and remind herself.

"Rachel?" you asked, a sinking feeling now in your stomach. You thought Q just had a minor crush on the girl, not something more than that. Fucking hell, you'd need to talk to her to really make sure she didn't act on her feelings. "I've not changed myself for Rachel…for anyone," you added, quickly, not wanting to know more about the situation.

Rhian shrugged and then bit her bottom lip, and okay, wow, your libido had just woken up. Rein that shit in because Quinn would fucking kill you if she ever found out you were turned on in her body. Though, it was totally not your fault. Quinn had screwed this girl, and you could definitely see the appeal. Maybe if she didn't keep such gorgeous company – and maybe if you had been sober- none of this would have been an issue.

"So why the new you? It's like you don't even recognise things that used to matter to you any more." That was probably more true than Rhian would ever realise, you noted.

"I'm trying out some new things, it is college after all." You shrugged like that made all the difference, but Rhian smiled at you and nodded.

"It is, and in the spirit of trying new things, why don't you and Marley come and join my friends and I?" The way she said it made you think Quinn had probably turned down this offer before. Wanting to check you weren't going to be around that weirdo Jules that you'd previously encountered, you scanned the table Rhian was referring to and found it empty of familiar faces. Well, to you anyway.

"Why not?" you asked, smiling, and Rhian grinned back. Yeah, fuck, you'd need to keep your distance with this one.

"Great," she chimed, and then her hand was on yours, your fingers interlacing together, and she began leading you back to Marley, before taking you to the new table.

It was a tight fit to get everyone into the booth, but then you had a gorgeous girl in your lap and fuck. You were so screwed if you didn't get yourself under control. Quinn had specifically said you couldn't fuck or kiss anyone, and you thought that was reasonable, but how were you to know you'd have a very friendly, and stunning, girl squirming about on your lap?

The universe was being cruel. So fucking cruel.

You tried, you tried so hard to behave, to keep your hands to yourself, to play it safe. But fuck, you hadn't been with a girl in so long, and your arms were on her waist, and her arms round your neck, and then she was grinning at you all mysterious like and you were hooked.

You couldn't be held accountable for your actions. Quinn hadn't told you Rhian had this particular power of unleashing her sultry gaze, which was a complete turn on. Nor had Quinn mentioned that she kept such freaking gorgeous company. Come on, this girl was stunning, and you were rather desperate to get to know her a little better.

It was a complete given when Rhian asked if you could walk her back to her dorm, and then Marley was rolling her eyes at you, as if she knew this would happen. You checked with her, though, before leaving, and she told you to have a good time, which yeah, you were planning on it.

Fuck Quinn's rules. It wasn't fair to instil such bullshit. Plus, she'd probably already masturbated to the sight of Rachel in a towel, and therefore this was just evening the scales out a bit. Anyway, you wanted to get back at her, and this was the best damn way.

The walk back to Rhian's dorm was mostly done in silence, but you couldn't stop eye fucking her, and she seemed to be enjoying every second of it. Seriously, she had mastered the lip bite, and that was pulling you deeper and deeper. Those dark brown eyes, the sun-kissed skin, which actually was just lighter than your own now that you came to think about it, and her dark locks falling over her shoulders, she was mesmerising.

You couldn't have arrived at her dorm room door any faster, and before she even had the key in the lock, her back was against it, and she had her arms around your neck. That was a bit unsettling, but only because you were so used to being the shorter of the two, and nope, Quinn was taller.

Then Rhian's lips were on yours, and good lord, she knew how to kiss. You, however, didn't have a fucking clue, and this was like some sloppy mess. What were you doing? What the fuck were Quinn's lips doing?!

You had mastered the art of kissing in your own body, but Quinn's lips were different from yours, and they required a different technique to effectively use them properly; a technique you didn't really have. Fucking hell, this was embarrassing.

If it was horrific, Rhian didn't say anything. She just began grinding herself against you, which hello Jesus, and tugged at you to move closer. That you could do, and fucking hell, you were so turned on this was painful.

"Open the door," you groaned, pulling back. You might not know how to kiss but you certainly knew how to fuck, and you would not disappoint.

The sound of Quinn's voice, gravelly and laden with lust had a shot of desire firing through your body, which was definitely surprising and unexpected. What the fuck was up with that?

Pushing that thought to the side, Rhian spun in your arms, and you began grinding against her as she worked to open the door. She had a fantastic ass, that you were sure of, and it was a great reminder of what was ahead.

But then again, it was a reminder of what was ahead.

You were about to get naked, in Quinn's body, and have sex, in Quinn's body.

What the fuck was wrong with you?!

"Shit," you cursed, stepping back from Rhian's body. "We can't do this. She's going to kill me," you babbled, shaking your head, and drawing attention to yourself.

"Who?" Rhian murmured, frowning, spinning to look at you "I thought you weren't in a relationship? Did you finally tell New York?" She actually seemed really excited by that second question.

No, no, Quinn definitely did not tell Rachel, otherwise Santana would have heard about that. Rachel couldn't keep her trap shut when someone gave her a creepy smile on the subway, let alone if Quinn had come out declaring feelings for her.

"No," you admitted, and then ran a hand through your hair. Your body was still abuzz with lust, but this was so wrong, and you couldn't go through with it. "But I just can't do this, I'm sorry," you supplied, knowing Quinn would apologise for this bullshit, even if you wouldn't have.

"It's okay," Rhian murmured, stepping forward, planting a kiss on your cheek. "She's very lucky to have you, and you should tell her so she knows it." Yeah, that wasn't going to happen, but it was sweet of her to say.

"Have a good night," you added, finally moving far enough away not to be tempted back. Rhian wished you the same, and then headed inside, and you began the leisurely walk back to think about what the hell you'd just about done and what you'd learnt.

So Quinn was up here, clearly running her mouth about her love for Rachel, and yet she was too much of a pussy to tell the girl in person. Maybe that's what all this was about, you thought. Maybe this whole body switch was so she could get closer to her.

If that was the case, then it really sucked to be you.

*0*0*

When you arrived back at your dorm, you threw your clothes off into a heap and sighed loudly. What you'd learnt from Rhian had thrown you off, and you were now pretty pissed off at Quinn, regardless if she deserved it or not. She needed to be forthcoming with whatever bullshit was going on with her, and coming clean about her feelings for Rachel would help greatly.

However, that was something to be dealt with another day because there was no way you were going to get answers if you called her up now, still drunk, still horny, and with a wounded ego. Right now, you just wanted to check your email in case your parents had sent you something. They typically gave you a heads up about the next rent cheque they'd send, and that was info you'd need to pass onto Quinn.

Finding Quinn's laptop amongst the heap of things you'd made in your haste to leave earlier, you logged out of Quinn's email, knowing full well her password was saved on the laptop so it would let you back in later if you wanted to, and clicked in the clear box to type your email address in. Only, a list of emails previously typed appeared instead, and you frowned.

There were two, one you recognised, and one you'd never seen before. What the hell was this?

Praying that she had that password saved, too, you clicked on it, and low and below, all the details fell in place. For a split second, your finger hovered over the enter key, wondering if this was a path you really wanted to go down.

Quinn clearly was hiding things, and clearly didn't want you knowing shit. She had gone out of her way to keep her pre-college life and college life separate, and obviously this email held some of those secrets. It would be an even bigger invasion of privacy if you were to look, if you were to log in and search through this email.

Fuck it, she'd brought this on herself when she refused to tell you anything, and she deserved it after the bullshit she'd pulled earlier.

Hitting the enter key, you watched the page load, and when it opened, you knew you'd hit jackpot.

*0*0*


	4. You Get What You Deserve

*0*0*

The rational of a drunk is skewed, you knew that. You’d had enough experiences of last night regrets to know that when you’re drunk you tend to fuck up. Only, this time, it felt like you had monumentally fucked up and there was no way back.

When Quinn found out, she was going to kill you, and never trust you again, and you deserved both.

Your actions with Rhian were bad enough, but when you found that other email, you should have immediately stopped. Only there was the name Harper, and you were finally going to get answers. You opened it in what you thought was drunken brilliance, and it all made sense.

That wrinkly, old, married, professor Quinn was screwing was actually Harper Conway, a wickedly attractive History Professor, who you were convinced was actually a supermodel. Her name had been on email after email in Quinn’s email, and after opening the first read mail, you realised just who she was. It took you about sixty seconds to find her page on the Yale website, and yeah, wow.

How, _how_ , Quinn managed to have an affair with this woman was beyond you. And it had knocked you a little more sober, because Quinn had lied about it being a man, had hidden the fact she was hooking up with a goddess. You had done that, for years you had lied and covered your tracks, all because you were scared, and from what you knew of Quinn, she had to be terrified.

And from the words in that one mail you read, it was clear that Quinn had called it quits on the relationship, if that’s what it could be called. So Jules’ threat now made sense. Quinn wouldn’t want to hurt anyone, not someone she cared about, and it was clear she cared. This Dear John note was powerfully written and it showed a side of Quinn you hadn’t seen in a long time.

And one you’d unlikely see ever again when she found out how much you knew.

You had to call her. The next morning, once you’d woken up with a splitting headache and relieved your tiny bladder, you had to call her. She needed to know, and just as you wanted to extend your friendship even further, to let her know she could count on you, you were going to have to admit to breaking the rules she set and stabbing her in the back.

What was trust to you? Clearly something foreign as you’d definitely broken hers.

The phone rang a few times before your lazy morning voice answered, and you wondered if you’d just woke her up. That wouldn’t help matters at all.

“Q?” you murmured, feeling the weight of what you were about to say in your words.

“Hey, I didn’t think I’d hear from you so soon, seeing as you were pissed at me yesterday,” she sounded upbeat as she spoke, and fuck.

“Yeah, about that…”

“Look, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have-“ she began and no. No. Way.

“Quinn, I need to tell you something.” That was direct enough to get her to stop. And now you could feel your palms getting sweaty holding the phone, your heart rate picking up, and you needed to get bold and brave because you had to tell her. You had to come clean.

“What? What is it?” The worry in her voice was justified, she just didn’t know it yet.

“Promise not to kill me.” That was completely the wrong thing to say, and the tired voice vanished completely.

“What did you do?” she ground out, and if you weren’t so hung over and in the dog house you’d bitch at her for it.

“I got wasted and made out with Rhian,” you confessed, knowing that you sounded scared.

There was silence on the line as you waited, and you pulled the phone away to see if you were actually still connected, and yep, you were. Then you heard it, a deep sigh on Quinn’s end, and words that shouldn’t have hurt as much as they did.

“Of course you did. Thanks a lot, what a great friend you are.” She sounded so done, completely unsurprised, as if this was bound to happen. And no, you hated that she knew you’d screw up, that you’d let her down so horrifically.

“Fuck, I’m sorry, okay?! I was mad at you-“ you began, not knowing what to say.

“So you found a girl who’s hung up on me to fuck with?” Quinn spat back, and there was the anger you were expecting initially. Only it was your voice yelling at you, and for some reason that was so much worse. It was you who was hurt, you who was showing your disappointment, just like what you felt, and it was fucking with your mind as well as your feelings.

“No, it wasn’t like that! I went out with Marley and then Rhian was there-“

“So you had to make out with her!” Quinn laughed humourlessly and you could practically hear her shaking her head at you in disappointment.

“Look, I almost fucked her-“ And that was the worst thing to say, but she needed to know. When the two of you switched back, you didn’t want her to be blindsided by what was almost another night spend in Rhian’s bed.

“You what?!” she screeched, and you felt yourself wincing.

“I didn’t, I didn’t,” you rushed to say. “But I was close and I realised how fucking screwed up that was, and I stopped. She’s stunning, and great company-“

“Yes, she is, and she’s also a good friend.”

“A friend you fuck?” you wondered, because that wasn’t something you expected, and okay, your voice was completely the wrong tone for that question without meaning to be.

“Don’t you dare judge me,” she growled, and you threw your hand up in defence even though she couldn’t see it.

“Fuck, I’m not judging! I just…I’m sorry.” Those words didn’t seem enough. They weren’t enough.

“I knew you would do something like this. You only think of yourself. It doesn’t matter what I think or what I want for my life, you just have to go and screw it up.” Yeah, that was pretty fucking painful to hear, but you deserved it, and you accepted it.

“Rhian understood when I stopped us, okay? She’s not mad or anything.” That had to help somewhat, surely. At least you hadn’t lost Quinn a friend.

“I find that hard to believe.”

“Do you, Q? Do you really? Because from what she was saying, you shouldn’t be surprised at all. It sounded like to me she was your own personal cheerleader on dealing with your feelings for Rachel.” And was that the right thing to bring up? Too late now.

“Rachel? What are you even-“ Quinn stopped short, and you quickly filled in the silence.

“New York, she wanted to know if you’d finally told New York. And after your history, it’s damn obvious you’re practically in love with Rachel. I don’t get why it’s a big secret, you could have told me and we could have worked something out-”

“I don’t have time for this,” she cut you off, once and for all, her voice, or your voice rather, as cold as ice. “Kurt and I are going out. Try not to screw my life up any more than you already have.”

“Quinn-“

She hung up before you could go on, and you hung your head in shame. You knew it was all your fault. You knew you had royally fucked up. You knew that any hope you had of getting Quinn to tell you about her life was gone. You’d just found her ace card, her biggest secret, and you’d throw it in her face. She’d never trust you again, and you really couldn’t blame her.

The fact you hadn’t even managed to bring up Harper probably made it worse. But you couldn’t do anything now. Calling her back would be the worst idea ever, if she even answered that was. You weren’t going to try and find out. She needed time.

Dropping the phone onto the bed you had only crawled out of minutes ago, you moved over to her desk and loaded up her laptop. You signed yourself out of all her accounts, and logged yourself into your own, or the ones you could get into. It was probably saver to avoid Facebook for now anyway.

From then, you grabbed some toiletries and decided the best course of action was to get showered and get on with the day, doing your best not to fuck up any more than you already had, if that was possible.

*0*0*

Four days had passed and you hadn’t heard a single word from Quinn. She was clearly done caring about what damage you might do to her life, or having far too much fun with your roommates, who you missed more than you wanted to admit.

And as it had been so long since you’d see their faces or even heard their crazy voices, you reached out to Rachel, knowing that she usually relied on Quinn’s schedule for Skype chats. It was a simple text, which was then immediately replied to, demanding that you better be logged in on Skype within the next five minutes unless you wanted to deal with her wrath.

Apparently Quinn wasn’t the only one who had strong feeling about her ‘friendship’ with Rachel. And as Skype alerted you to a new video call, you could tell from the history of their conversations that Quinn had to be in deep with Rachel. So when her face appeared before you, Rachel’s infectious smile grinning brightly, you felt a pang of pain in your chest.

Quinn probably thought she didn’t stand a chance.

“Hey, Quinn!” Rachel cried, waving excitedly at the camera, and shit, you were kinda emotional about seeing her. You missed her and her crazy antics, and it was really frustrating that when you needed your friends most now, you were going to be without them. They thought you were Quinn after all.

“Hey, Rach,” you murmured, giving a wave back. You also ended up grinning at her like an idiot. Too bad.

While Marley was decent company, she wasn’t Rachel, and there was no filling in for Kurt. Yale was lonely, very lonely. Then again, maybe that’s why Quinn was all over the place, clinging onto any attachment what so ever, even if it was physical.

Biting your bottom lip, you finally felt like you sussed her out a little more, before turning back to hear Rachel’s spiel about all the adventures going on. She was telling you about times when you were there, with all the ridiculous things you got up to with them, and it was practically making you tear up.

Fucking hell, you missed them. They had become your family, and now you were stuck in Quinn’s body, miserably alone. Not only had you ruined that friendship with her, but you were going to have to pretend to be her for however long you were stuck like this, and that meant no Rachel, no Kurt, no movie nights, no morning sing-songs, no catty judgements over breakfast, no witty banter over dinner, and no support.

You spent the rest of the day chatting with Rachel, soaking up every bit of her that you could, which was probably fitting considering Quinn’s feelings for her. But for those few hours chatting with Rachel, it wasn’t about Quinn, it was about how she was there for you, and when you got back, you’d be so much nicer to Rachel. Whether she realised it or not, she was helping you immensely, and you felt indebted to her for that.

“Alright, well, it’s been lovely talking with you, Quinn, but I’ve got to go. Santana’s been all over the place lately, and we’re going to try and cheer her up.”

“Oh?” you didn’t want to sound too curious, but you were desperate to know how Quinn was holding up in your body.

“She’s not drinking, she’s not cursing, she’s practically a different person. It’s scary. We’re really worried. We spoke to Brittany, but apparently nothing has changed between them and last they spoke all was well. I was hoping you’d know something?”

“I don’t, I’m sorry.” You couldn’t say anything without revealing far too many details or causing so much confusion, so it was better to play innocent.

“Oh well. We’ll get it out of her eventually. Do you think it’s a girl? Kurt says she’s been keeping to herself lately, trying to get back on her feet after Britt, but what if it’s more than that? What if she’s met someone and it’s gone horribly wrong?”

“Wouldn’t she tell you if there was a girl?”

“I’d hope so, but you know Santana.” Yes, you did, and hearing Kurt and Rachel’s concern made you feel so lucky to have them as friends. It also was rather revealing to know they knew more about your situation with Brittany than you’d let on.

 “Give her time, I’m sure she’ll be back to her normal self in no time.” You could only hope. Quinn clearly needed to get her life back, and you weren’t sure how much longer you could take it at Yale all alone.

“You’re right,” Rachel smiled, hopeful. She then bid you goodbye and while you were reluctant to say bye, you did so and shut the laptop screen.

Then it was just you and a dorm room that felt even emptier than the night before.  

*0*0*

 

 


	5. Together

*0*0*

Living in someone else’s body was challenging, to say the least. You’d had days to adjust, but still, you couldn’t get used to the fact that Quinn didn’t have to reach as high as you would have, you found it fucking impossible to write anything down as Quinn was right handed, walking past any mirror still gave you a heart attack, and no, this was taking its toll.

Quinn and you hadn’t spoken in days, and you needed that to change, because you couldn’t go on. Obviously, to fix this crazy debacle, the two of you at least had to be talking. Given that wasn’t happening, it felt like you had gone fifty steps backwards in sorting this mess out, rather than forward.

And given how you were in such a shit mood, you were too fucking lazy to even pretend to be Quinn. So you stopped going out, stopped making an effort to talk to Marley or anyone else for that matter, and lurked around Yale like a recluse. She was definitely going to have to do some damage control when she got back, but when that was, you had no idea.

Of course there was another thing, what if you couldn’t switch back?

What if you two were actually stuck like this?

Quinn would have to adapt to be you, and you’d have to adapt to be her. She would pick up you baggage with Brittany, your homophobic abuela, your lack of a life plan; and you would get her stretch marks with a daughter to boot, her severely dysfunctional and terrifying family, and her life at Yale.

How would that even work?

It wouldn’t. You didn’t want to be in Yale, you wanted to sing, and find whatever it is you were meant to be doing in New York. But Quinn’s singing voice was so different from yours, and it wasn’t the same. She had that air of sophistication you had never had, but now that you actually had it, you definitely didn’t want it.

No, you needed to sort this fucking mess out before it ruined the both of you, and whatever was left of your friendship, which really wasn’t much.

Grabbing her phone, you quickly typed out a text. You could only hope that she would see the seriousness of this situation and decide to put her anger at you aside to sort this mess out.

_I know you don’t want to talk to me, but we need to sort this out. I don’t want to become the new Quinn Fabray,_ you sent, after reading it again and again, hoping it wasn’t going to just piss her off more.

You weren’t expecting an immediate reply, but her phone buzzed in your hand before you had a chance to put it down, and okay, you shouldn’t have smiled like an idiot at that, because clearly she was still pissed and only had one thing in mind.

_Do you know how to switch us back?_

At least her priorities were in order.

_No._

_I’ll be on the first train tomorrow morning. I’ll text you when I’m outside the dorm._

Well, that hadn’t been the response you were expecting, but you’d take it. At least it meant the two of you would have to talk. And yeah, okay, you weren’t sure what her presence would do, but considering you two had tried being apart and nothing had happened, apart from you fucking her life up, maybe being together would help fix things.

You could only hope.

_See you then._

*0*0*

Quinn’s text the following morning to let you know that she was outside waiting on you to let her in was actually rather frightening. It was one thing knowing that she was you, it was a whole other actually seeing her as you.

Talk about fucking terrifying!

You were going to be able to see what the world saw when they looked at you. You were going to see your face for the first time in something other than a reflection or a photo. You were going to see your body from all angles and how you moved. You were going to be able to see you, judge you, like everyone else in the world would.

And that thought had you dry heaving over Quinn’s bin, seconds before you were about to head out the door.

You shakily made it down to the ground floor, and then it was a few controlled breathes before heading for the door. You could see you, or her, whatever. You could see the back of her, as she was faced away, and as you drew nearer, you felt your stomach rolling.

The sound of the door opening was enough for Quinn to turn round, and you really weren’t prepared for her to do so.

“Fuck me,” you blurted out, holding the door open, having frozen on the spot.

It was you. It was YOU.

Only, it wasn’t. There was an essence of Quinn all over you, and not the good kind. She was dressed very conservatively, hiding your amazing cleavage from the world, and in flat shoes which was a first for you. They were fucking ugly, so she must have bought them, but then again, it was probably better as no way would she be able to walk in your heels. And a broken ankle didn’t feel like a fair trade for screwing her life up.

“My thoughts exactly,” Quinn murmured, breaking you from that tangent, and you looked back up to her. It was the biggest mind fuck ever because that was your mouth moving, your voice speaking, and you didn’t sign up for this.

“Are you as fucking horrified as I am right now?” you asked, needing some comfort that she wasn’t having it easy.

“Yes, but mostly because you see to have forgotten to put clothes on me this morning.” And then she had advanced, pulling her coat off and immediately wrapping it around you. “Please tell me you haven’t been walking around in my underwear all week?”

Frowning, you looked down, and what the fuck was her problem? You looked good! You’d found these cute little denim shorts at the back of her wardrobe, and this shirt wasn’t hideous, and the boots were practical as well as easy to kick off when you got back to the room. So again, what was her problem?

“My thighs look huge,” Quinn muttered, and you could see the insecurity in her, your, eyes.

“No, they look great, trust me,” you replied, grabbing her hand, your hand, fucking hell that was hard to follow, and pulling her inside.

She had a simple bag, which thanks, as you were going to need that once you switched back, and was quite content to let you lead the way even though she knew exactly where she was going.

Once inside the dorm room, and having dumped everything down, Quinn scanned her room like she knew you’d snooped, and the glare she shot you wasn’t as bad as it could have been. Only, now she was sitting opposite you, on her roommate’s bed, and the silence was droning on, and obviously the two of you needed to talk.

“Thanks for coming,” you said, giving her a generic smile, and she rolled her eyes at you.

“I couldn’t stay in New York any longer. Rachel and Kurt were begin to drive me insane. They think you’re in love.”

“The fuck?” you groaned, frowning.

“I’ve not been able to pull you off as well as I would have liked, and they put that down to you being in love and not telling anyone.”

“Oh great, so God only knows what they think of you coming up to see me!” you cried out, and Quinn gave a little chuckle.

“How ironic.” You frowned at her, and she shook her head, sighing as she did so, clearly not wanting to focus on it.

“So have you made out with any more of my friends up here?” And wow, that was one way to ease back into things. Thanks a fucking lot, Quinn.

“No,” you ground out, trying to ignore her stare. It was seriously disconcerting to see your own cold stare aimed at you. “Look, about what I did-“

“You’re sorry, I get it,” she cut you off, and you sighed. “Let’s just move on. We’ve clearly got a lot to deal with already, so there’s no point wasting our time squabbling over what happened.”

“Squabbling? Moving on? Fucking hell, please tell me you were talking and acting like this when with Kurt and Rachel?” Quinn rolled her eyes at you, and you smirked, feeling her stoic presence ease.

“So I guess we should start to find a way to fix this, fix us.”

“What do you suggest?” You figured she’d come out with some library trip in town or maybe getting in touch with some spiritual being or whatever, but then her student side was showing itself.

“Google?” And fuck it, you’d already looked but there might be something new, and it least felt productive. Nodding, you moved to grab Quinn’s laptop as she slipped off her roommate’s bed and onto the bed beside you.

“Fucking hell, Q, could you not have warmed me about your back pain?” That shit seemed to be getting worse and worse each day, and it was definitely no fun.

“Don’t even get me started on your body, Santana, because it’s got some serious problems,” she harked back and hold the fuck up.

“Oh please, my body is perfect!” you argued, not even bothering to open the laptop until this was sorted.

“Oh really?” Quinn asked, raising her eyebrows at you.

“Yes, really! What is wrong with my body?” Now you were taking offense, and how dare she. If she wasn’t you, you’d smack her face in.

“For starters, waking up every morning with a dull ache in your left knee.”  Please, that was nothing compared to her back pain.

“That’s from a cheerleading accident, freshman year, you know that!” And she did, so not your fault if she forgot.

“I didn’t know you still experienced pain! And what’s with your need to smoke! I found myself craving a cigarette half a dozen times; only, I didn’t know you still smoked,” she ranted, and yeah, that must have sucked, considering you know she quit after her fling with the skanks. But so had you, so shame on her for judging you.

“I don’t smoke, not anymore. Do you know how hard it is to smoke when living with Rachel Berry? Girl practically hacks up a lung if she suspects it. And don’t get me started on the lecture you get.” You had been there and done that, and Rachel Berry was a force to be reckoned with when it might affect her singing voice.

“Not the point, you still get cravings. And how do you even cope with these?!” she groaned, pressing her hands to your tits, which would have been great had she been in her own body and all that.  

“You get used to them.” You didn’t seem to have any of the issues she looked to be having, and how could they be that much of a problem? They looked fucking magical, when she didn’t have them locked away like harry potter under the stairs.

“I don’t want to get used to them. I want mine back,” she whined, and you paused. Looking down, you scrunched up your face, debating what was so much better about hers, or lack of hers, and then looked back at her. “Really?”

Her unimpressed face looked good on you, and you cracked a smile, but still, she whacked you. Totally worth it, and like you thought, she was a complete masochist because the only persons he was hurting was herself, and at the end of the day, her own body was now going to have a bruise on the arm, not yours.

Finally opening up the laptop, you loaded Google and got to work trying to find out if there was anything new out there about body switching. Even if there wasn’t, it felt kinda good to just have Quinn with you. Yeah, it was still fucking terrifying to see yourself moving around and doing shit when you weren’t in control, but having her there felt like you might actually be able to get your body back sometime soon.

*0*0*

The two of you spent all day looking around the web for some idea on how to fix things, but kept coming up blank. Never once had the internet let you down, and now it was a traitor, leaving you hanging out to dry like this.

Though, okay, maybe the two of you could have done a bit more looking, but then Quinn wanted to know what you’d snooped into, and that conversation took fucking ages, and then somehow Netflix was loaded, and what? You were keen to keep watching. The fact that Quinn had thought to put food in her bag made things even better as you two technically never had to leave the dorm room.

It felt normal, being with her, hanging out with her, and she did seem to be over the fact you made out with Rhian, and she did seem to be happy to be there, but then again, why wouldn’t she? This was her home, after all. And then that brought reality crashing back in on you.

She was still you, and you were still her. Those few hours of forgetting about that fact, being able to just be yourself even if it was in Quinn’s body were liberating, and fuck, now you were tired and a little grouchy because you just wanted your life back.

“San, can I go to bed now?” Quinn mumbled, having just brushed her teeth.

She was standing in your pyjamas, wearing a University of Louisville t-shirt and these sleep shorts, and yeah, you looked fucking good. You hadn’t given it much thought, but no, you really did look good, and wow.

Quinn’s shuffling foot to foot waiting on your response was enough for you to stop salivating over your own body and nod.

“Yeah, sure.” Yet still, she stood there looking at you, and after a couple of seconds she rose her eyebrows in question, and then the fucking penny dropped. She wanted to sleep in her own bed.

“Oh right, yeah. Shit. Sorry.” Grabbing your shit, you slid off the bed and moved past her, feeling like a fucking idiot for not realising. Like, come on, this was her room, her bed. She might be in your body, but this was her world, not yours.

You rolled into the other bed and no, Quinn’s was definitely better. Of course it was. But still, you made the best of it until she asked if it was okay to turn the lights out, and once in darkness, you were stuck.

The bed just felt lumpy. You were used to sleeping on shit mattresses, and that couch Kurt had bought from the flea market was a fucking back ache to lie on, but still, this one was taking the cake. So you rolled, and you flipped, and you tried to find some way of getting to sleep, but nope, wasn’t happening.

“What’s wrong?” Quinn groaned, and you could hear the frustration ebbing in her voice.

“Nothing.” You’d get comfy, she just needed to give you a minute or ten.

“Then why does it sound like you’re jumping on the bed?” It did not sound like that. Not really. Maybe. Kinda. Okay. It did.

“It’s not as comfy as yours.” It came out far too much like a whine, which was mortifying for the both of you, you were sure.

Quinn was silent for a moment before you heard her exasperated sigh, and you expected her to lecture you, but that never came.

“Get over here,” she grunted, and you heard her shuffling. Which, okay, sweet, she was swapping beds with you.

Only she wasn’t.

You crawled in next to her, trying not to touch her, which was fucking ridiculous since it was you and you’d had your hands all over your own damn body before, but whatever. You didn’t want her to think you were trying to cop a feel, of yourself?, so tried to keep your distance.

“Thanks,” you murmured, already feeling so much better, having grown used to this bed now.

“It’s fine, I never would have been able to get any sleep with you tossing about over there anyway.” She tried to make it sound like it was all for her own good, but you knew your voice better than that, and she was letting on that she cared about you, just a little bit.

For whatever reason, that had you smiling into the pillow, and seeking her hand out under the cover. She slipped her fingers into yours, before giving your hand a soft squeeze.

Now it felt like the two of you were finally in this together, and you know what they say; two heads are better than one, so surely you two would be able to have things back to normal in no time.

*0*0*

 


	6. Chapter 6

*0*0*

Two heads were not better than one, it turned out.

Foolishly, you thought that once Quinn and you were in the same location everything would magically fall back into place. You were convinced that when you had crawled into her bed, your bed, whatever bed, the night before and fallen asleep with her hand in yours, that when you woke you'd be back in your own body.

Only you weren't.

The resonating back pain you had slowly been growing accustomed to was enough to tell you that you were still in Quinn's body. Quinn, being the smaller of the two of you now, was tucked up into you, her face buried into your neck, with your arms around her, in the tiny bed that really shouldn't be able to fit two people. Yet there you both were.

Given that Quinn was still asleep, it offered you the moment to just look at yourself, in a way that you would never get to see normally. You looked pretty peaceful when you slept, and yeah, you were definitely still of the notion that whoever got to wake up to you in the morning was one lucky bugger.

"If you don't stop looking at me, I'm going to push you out of the bed," Quinn grumbled, her voice startling you, or your voice startling you, whatever.

"Please, I'd like to see you try," you murmured back, pulling your arm off of her, and momentarily forgetting that you were not in your own body. If you had remembered, you wouldn't have said anything, because you damn well knew you were stronger than Quinn.

She knew that too, cause with one shove, you were tumbling backwards and landing with a thump on the floor.

"Mother fucker," you cursed, whining as you back took the brunt of it. "Quinn," you whined again, now in a shit load of pain. It took her only three seconds to realise just what had played out.

"Oh crap, my back, are you okay?" Her head, your head, popped over the mattress as she looked down at you, concerned and worried. " Does it hurt? Can you move? I can go and get someone-"

"Fuck that, just help me off the floor." Quinn was quick to get off the bed and lean down over you.

"I really don't think you should move. I'm so sorry, I completely forgot, I thought you were you, not you were me!"

"It doesn't matter," you moaned, shaking your head, and trying to push yourself up.

"No, stay down." Quinn pushed you back to the ground, gently this time, and darted to her cupboard. You could only watch, with the shooting pains running up your back and round your ribs, as she rustled in the back, pulling out a shoebox. There was more rustling and she returned with a box of painkillers, and the bottle of water left over from yesterday.

"Take two of these, and you'll feel better in no time." Quinn reached out, trying to help you sit up, before handing you the pills and water. You assumed she'd done this before, or something similar, and immediately took then, not questioning her.

"How the fuck do you live with this pain?" You moaned, looking grumpy as fuck.

"I don't usually get pushed out my own bed, and most of the time it's not that sore." Quinn paused, and you watched as she licked her lips, your lips, which, okay when you thought of that, was kinda mesmerising, but no. " i really am sorry, Santana, I would never have-"

"I know, so just forget about it." There was no point beating herself up about it, and frankly, you just wanted to forget about it and move on. "I should probably lie down, though, so I'm going to be useless, today. Given this is your home, you'll be fine on your own, yeah?" There was no reason to ask, but as you climbed back into bed, with her assistance, you thought it best to check she was going to be okay. After all, she was you, she was Santana, back in her own home. It was still going to be different and all sorts of difficult for her.

"I'll be fine, I'm more worried about you,"

"Don't, I can take care of myself." She knew that wasn't exactly true, as she'd gotten the cheque from your parents that was to pay for rent, and she'd seen how heavily you relied on Kurt and Rachel in New York, but whatever.

Tucking you in, Quinn bent down and kissed you on the forehead. " I'll go get us some food, you just sleep, okay?" You nodded, and closed your eyes, already feeling the affect of the painkillers on your body. Sleep definitely seemed like the best course of action.

And hey, for a few more hours you could forget; forget she was you and you were her and how you really wished she had been in her own body when she kissed your forehead or held your hand. But in time, maybe that would be the case, if either of you could work out how to change back.

*0*0*

Whatever Quinn gave you was magical. It took away all the back pain, and left you feeling awesome. If you had found these earlier in the week, you would have felt like you'd struck gold. Though, God only knows if you'd taken all her pills she'd kick your ass worse than what she did for making out with Rhian.

However, at least you had a good reason for taking them, and you were definitely thankful that the pain had gone. Attempting to sit up, you heard Quinn before you saw her, as she moved from her roommate's bed onto the bed next to you. Her concern was still evident, her worry and fear written all over her face, your face, and it was strange to see. You weren't used to seeing the softer side of your features, and you also felt quite bad for worrying Quinn. But then again, she was probably only worried because it was her back that was causing the problem.

"Hey, are you okay?" She asked softly, taking your hand in hers and giving it a gentle squeeze.

"Yeah, I'm fine, no more pain," you grinned, trying to play it all off, but she rolled her eyes.

"That's the painkillers talking, they're good at masking it."

"Well, keep me plied with these and everything will be great then," you replied, figuring that was the best logic.

"Yeah, no. That's not happening. If you want to get high, wait till you get home and smoke pot in your own body."

"You found my stash, didn't you?" Your grin was roguish, you were sure, and she couldn't help but smile back at you.

"Let's just say I was wondering why you had herbs stashed in your bed side table, and then the penny dropped. I'm surprised you're even allowed to have that there with Kurt and Rachel."

"What they don't know won't hurt them. Plus, I really want to get them baked at some point, and I figure they'll get the idea at some point in time, so best to be prepared." Quinn shook her head, her smile still teasing at her lips.

"You're dreadful."

"I'm brilliant, I've got the good stuff, none of that crappy pot that's a shit high. When they come to their senses they're going to have them blown."It made perfect sense to you, and also totally made you a considerate roommate. You were going to look after them, give them an experience to remember, because there was no way they were ever going to do it more than once, that was for sure.

"You haven't done anything like that in my body, have you?"

"Please, what do you think I am? I haven't even had time to scout out the local dealers. Give me another week, at least."Quinn hit your arm playfully, shaking her head at your teasing, and you grinned back at her. "I wouldn't pull that shit while in your body," you replied seriously.

"No, you just like to make out with my friends," Quinn teased, taking a lighter side to that argument.

"Your friends are pretty hot, Q, so you can't exactly blame me." That comment received another eye roll. "Just be thankful I only made out with her, cause there was certainly potential for more."

"I don't think I could ever forgive you if you had sex with someone in my body."

"I really wouldn't want to have sex with someone in your body, you're too tall, you're right handed, all my skills and talents are back in my own body. I'd be a shit lay in your body."

"I am not a shit lay, as you so eloquently put it." Great, now she looked offended.

"Well, you can't exactly provide proof of that, so let's just agree to disagree." You knew it would rile her up more, but that was definitely the point.

"No! We're not agreeing to disagree! You can't say I'm bad in bed and expect to move on from it."

"Prove that you're good then," you challenged, just to see what she would do, and you almost burst out laughing at the shocked look crossing her, your, features.

"We are not having sex!" Quinn replied, scandalised, and this was so much better than you thought it would be.

"What? Why not?" The least you could do was see where this conversation went.

"Because I'd be having sex with myself. That's just sick," Quinn argued, shaking her head again.  

"You're hot, I'm hot, what's the problem?" You teased, enjoying this far too much.

"Santana!" She cried, whacking you again, this time harder.

"In this body, my name is Quinn, thank you very much." Better not start calling each other by their proper names in case they did it out in public, around actual people.

"You're insufferable, do you know that?" You grinned back and saw the smallest of smiles attempting to make its way onto Quinn's lips, but she was fighting it.

"Don't you mean you're insufferable, after all, this is your body?" She rolled her eyes, ignoring you as she murmured aloud to herself.

"If I kill you in my own body, do I die or do you? Or do I need to kill your body to go back in my own? I don't think we've given that theory enough thought," she contemplated, and it was your turn to roll your eyes.  

"Ha-ha," you grumbled, before pausing. Just as the silence was stretching on, you opened your mouth to speak again.  "It'll just be like masturbation." Quinn's eyes bugged and she shot you a glare.

"No, it really won't be."

"You suck," you teased, finally ready to give up that line of thought, before she got properly pissed at you. As if you were serious. Please.

"You're sick," Quinn shot back, moving away from the bed again. She clearly thought you did not need her concern or worry anymore, which success, and she went back to lie on her roommate's bed.

Content that Quinn was no longer stressing over you or her back, you opted to go back to sleep. The high was wearing off, and you could really do with sleeping a bit longer, before it truly left you. Rolling onto your side, you looked across the room, watching Quinn as she read her book, and if the two of you hadn't been in each other's bodies, hanging out like this would have been pretty awesome. The fact that she was still you, and you were still her, however, did put a damper on things. Plus, it was kinda gutting that the only reason the two of you were even hanging out like this was because of the damn body switch.

Why couldn't it have been like that before?

*0*0*

Later on, once you were properly awake, no longer doped up on her pain meds, Quinn and yourself opted to go out and get some food. She wanted to avoid campus as much as possible, so began leading you away from the dorms and the lecture halls. You could understand why, given you didn't know many faces, and they knew you, and she knew them, but they didn't know her, which was way confusing, but it also kinda felt like she didn't trust you to be around anyone she might possibly have known; whether that be you as her, or her as you.

That didn't sit well with you, but you weren't going to start, because Quinn was probably freaking out enough for the both of you.

Quinn found somewhere to eat, a lot further a field than you thought you'd go, and the two of you sat in a booth towards the back. It looked like a mix between a restaurant and a bar, except due to the time it was relatively quiet and was obviously not a frequent haunt of students. Clearly, just what she wanted.

Settling down, you both ordered drinks and food, awaiting the arrival of the former before diving off into conversation. Quinn kept it light at first, but you had a few questions that had been sitting with you for days that were bugging you a little. So what better time than to bring them up now.

"So, you ever going to do something about Rachel?" you asked, taking a drink and watching Quinn's reaction.

"I've told you, Rachel and I are nothing but friends." Yeah, you'd heard that before.

"Q, you don't have to lie to me. Your friends keep mentioning New York, and I'm not an idiot."

"No, one would think you're not," she muttered, and what the fuck?

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?!" You didn't have Snixx to really throw a tantrum, but you did have Quinn's piercing look and glare to do the same.

"Nothing. Ignore me. I'm sorry," she replied, shooting you an apologetic look after a second. God, it felt weird hearing those words out of your mouth, let alone coming from Quinn.

Taking a drink, you stewed over her words, because okay, her calling you an idiot kinda hurt, but whatever. Before you could bring up the next topic, Quinn had beat you to it.

"What's going on with you and Brittany? I sort of expected there to be more contact between the two of you," she confessed, looking at you all concerned again, which no, you didn't need that.

"Nothing is going on. We're done. It's as easy as that."

"It can't be easy if you two never talk."

"I miss my friend, I don't miss my ex," you admitted, shrugging your shoulders. " It is what it is. We'll get over our shit in time and be friends again, I'm sure." You weren't sure, but it was easier to say. However, you knew you were a crappy liar in Quinn's body, and she could see right through you. Thankfully she didn't push.

"So there isn't anyone else?" She asked, curiously.

"I wish," you grumbled, shaking your head. "Why do you think Rhian was such an appealing option?" Just kissing someone else, being with someone else, was so refreshing after months of stalemate. And Rhian certainly helped, because now you definitely knew you were ready for someone else, could be with someone else, without the guilt and the leftover mess from Brittany. About fucking time, too, if you thought about it.

"Anyway, enough about me, who is this Harper that bitch threatened you with?" Perhaps Quinn thought you weren't going to bring that up, but she should have known better, cause please, that was a big topic, even if she wanted to keep it hidden. And hell, you felt closer to her again, all this bonding and shit, so it seemed like the right time to bring it up again.

"Harper is an ex." Obviously.

"I got that, Q. What makes them so special?"

"She's my - sorry, she was one of my professors." You just about choked on your drink, fighting the cough and trying not to spit all over the table. Of course, Quinn was looking at you like you were a rabid animal, and that your reaction was completely out of order.

"Fucking hell, Q, I wasn't expecting that of you."

"Yeah, no one does," she murmured, looking away.

"So how did your friends find out?"

"Julie is friends with Harper's husband's family."

"She's married." It wasn't a question, but Quinn answered like it was.

"Yeah," Quinn shrugged, acting like this was nothing, but it totally wasn't.

"Wow." You didn't quite know what to say. You weren't expecting that, but then again, maybe that's why Quinn was keeping it all a secret. She knew no one would expect her to be sleeping with women, let alone her professor, and her married professor at that. "Was she at least good in bed, cause that's a lot of risk there, Q," you muttered, and you saw her crack a smile, so yeah, apparently the professor was good. You weren't really sure why, but that made you feel pleased. After Puck, you knew Q's sex life was based on crappy fumblings, so nice to see a change from that.

"Anything else you want to know?" Q asked, and you weren't going to pass the opportunity up.

"Why are you telling me all this now?" That was the big one, although you did have another up your sleeve.

"You're my friend, and I figure if this body switch doesn't make us closer, what will?" Quinn paused for a second, brushing her hair away from her face, and looking surprised at how long it was before rolling her eyes. Yeah, you were the same, it was fucking weird having different hair, and it was easy to forget at times you weren't in your own body. " You've already seen and heard things I had never planned on telling anyone, but I guess, I can trust you. We're friends." She left off the question at the end -right? - and you definitely didn't want her doubting that.

"Right, we're friends," you finished, nodding. A small smile etched on her lips and you figured one last question couldn't hurt. "So, as a friend, who is New York, if she's not Rachel?"

You weren't expecting to see Quinn pull her guard back up, but there is was, your walls making their way known.

"You- You don't need to concern yourself with that. It'll never work out. She doesn't see me that way, and I suspect she never will."

"Well, it's her loss," you replied, not wanting to make her feel bad about the rejection.

Quinn shot you a thankful smile, but it was strained. And yeah, now you felt like a jackass for asking again in the first place. You should have just kept your mouth shut. It would have been so much easier.

A couple more minutes of silence and then food was being brought over, which was distraction enough. You quickly threw out another topic, hoping it would ease her defences down, and slowly but surely it did.

Tucking into your food, you couldn't help but think that progress had been made. Whether it had to do with another stark reality hitting home; their bodies quirks were still there, still capable of pain; or that just spending time with one another reminded them of how it used to be between them; you didn't know. But it was progress, and given how things were going, that counted for something.

*0*0* 


End file.
